The invention relates to a method and apparatus for dynamic programming across a computer network. Specifically, the invention provides for a user on a client computer to select from available logical components on a server computer and to have the selected components assembled into a user program. In this manner, the server computer provides each user on each client computer with customized and dynamic information or tasks.
The invention can be used to execute user-defined remote actions between the server and client across the network. For example, the invention can execute user programs such as publishing pages from several databases, delivering media over the network or managing and controlling a manufacturing site.
A computer network (e.g. the world wide web) is used to provide a wide variety of information from server computers to client computers across the globe. The information currently supplied is stored as static pages or is created at the time of request from a merge program that constructs the web page. Conventionally, little if any action is performed by the web servers other than data delivery (e.g. hypertext markup language (HTML) web page publication). This conventional method of supplying static or mail merged pages is very labor intensive since each page is managed as a single unit and published to the requesting client computer as it was originally designed by the programmer. This system does not provide capabilities to re-program the web server to perform different tasks or to provide different information to the client without installing new code or HTML pages on the web server. If a user has specific requirements for the server, the server program must be re-written. If the user""s requirements are complex, the task of re-programming the server increases dramatically. Moreover, if other users have different requirements, there is no conventional technique of satisfying the other users. One of the reasons for this is that conventionally the user cannot request a web server across the computer network to be re-assembled as a program to fit his or her specific requirements. What is needed is a system that can address and satisfy the requirements of many users and provide a flexible and customizable server-client relationship.
The invention provides a method and apparatus for building and assembling programs across a computer network in order to perform required functions for each client. The invention is accomplished by providing an environment that permits the user to assemble programs from components over a computer network (e.g. world wide web) by defining or re-defining the necessary logical program components. Thus, the program can then be executed to perform tasks programmed by the user. This is accomplished by constructing logical components that are then called and bound into the program at run time, which alleviates the need to compile the program as a single unit. This action of xe2x80x9cbindingxe2x80x9d logical program components together was not practical until the availability of programming languages like Java that allows this type of xe2x80x9clate bindingxe2x80x9d. The foundation that permits this method of page construction or programming is the management of the components for the assembly, requesting, calling and appending of the components to create the user program. Hence, the invention employs several intermediary steps that are executed in the correct sequence by a server program to obtain the desired result.
An embodiment of the invention includes a memory configured to store data for different internal functions, an interface to receive the request of the action to be taken, a processor coupled to the interface and the memory. The system is configured to manipulate the memory based on a set of instructions that are also stored/loaded into memory when a request for that action is executed.
Advantages of the invention includes the ability to produce custom pages or perform complex functions for a requesting client that are significantly different for each client, and can be re-programmed without a compiler across the computer network by the user.